LUCY (NASA SPACECRAFT)

Launching in late 2021, Lucy will be the first space mission to explore the Trojan asteroids. These are a population of small bodies that are left over from the formation of the solar system. They lead or follow Jupiter in their orbit around the Sun, and may tell us about the origins of organic materials on Earth. Lucy will fly by and carry out remote sensing on six different Trojan asteroids and will study surface geology, surface color and composition, asteroid interiors/bulk properties, and will look at the satellites and rings of the Trojans. Learn more about the Lucy mission: https://www.nasa.gov/lucy Music: "Life Choices" by Universal Production Music Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center James Tralie (ADNET): Lead Producer Lead Editor Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support Kel Elkins (USRA): Lead Data Visualizer Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator Michael Lentz (USRA): Animator Jonathan North (USRA): Animator Cathy Olkin (SwRI): Scientist Harold Levison (SwRI): Scientist This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13482 If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/NASAGoddard Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASAGoddard · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc

This visualization includes multiple views of the entire Lucy mission in a Jupiter-rotating reference frame. The visualization includes top-down, side, and oblique views of the solar system. Jupiter's swarms of Trojan asteroids may be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets, and serve as time capsules from the birth of our Solar System more than 4 billion years ago. The Trojans orbit in two loose groups that orbit the Sun, with one group always ahead of Jupiter in its path, the other always behind. At these two Lagrange points the bodies are stabilized by the Sun and Jupiter in a gravitational balancing act. These primitive bodies hold vital clues to deciphering the history of the solar system, and perhaps even the origins of life and organic material on Earth. Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojans. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called “Lucy” by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system. Lucy will launch in October 2021 and, with boosts from Earth's gravity, will complete a 12-year journey to seven different asteroids — a Main Belt asteroid and six Trojans, the last two members of a “two-for-the-price-of-one” binary system. Lucy’s complex path will take it to both clusters of Trojans and give us our first close-up view of all three major types of bodies in the swarms (so-called C-, P- and D-types). Visualizers: Kel Elkins (lead), Ernie Wright For more information or to download this public domain video, go to https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4719#28536

Scientists have had the opportunity to examine several asteroids in the Solar System now, and what they’ve learned is how much variety is out there, depending on the mass, distance from the Sun and composition. Astronomers currently know of 829,400 asteroids across the Solar System, and they’d love to visit as many of them as possible to learn more about them. Considering the price of a single spacecraft, that’s going to get expensive. Fortunately, there are places in the Solar System that have trapped a large number of asteroids in a way that a single spacecraft can visit several of them as part of a mission. They’re at Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points, and this week NASA approved a new mission that’ll explore 7 different asteroids over a 12-year journey. It’s called Lucy. Our Book is out! https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/ Audio Podcast version: ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2 RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio What Fraser's Watching Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G Weekly email newsletter: https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter Weekly Space Hangout: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/ Astronomy Cast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK--MdCSg Support us at https://www.patreon.com/universetoday More stories at https://www.universetoday.com/ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday Instagram - https://instagram.com/universetoday Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [email protected] Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Chad Weber - [email protected] References: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/lucy-mission-clears-critical-milestone https://www.lpi.usra.edu/decadal/sbag/topical_wp/AndrewSRivkin-trojans.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/lucy-the-first-mission-to-jupiter-s-trojans http://lucy.swri.edu//mission/Targets.html https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Asteroids_Structure_and_composition_of_asteroids https://sci.esa.int/web/mars-express/-/31031-phobos http://lucy.swri.edu//mission/Spacecraft.html

The first NASA mission to the Jupiter's Trojan asteroids is scheduled to launch in in October 2021. -- Learn More About the Lucy Mission: https://www.space.com/42309-lucy-trojan-asteroids-mission-approved.html Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Dan Gallagher

Beyond the asteroid belt are "fossils of planet formation" known as the Trojan asteroids. These primitive bodies share Jupiter's orbit in two vast swarms, and may hold clues to the formation and evolution of our solar system. Now, NASA is preparing to explore the Trojan asteroids for the first time. A mission called Lucy will launch in 2021 and visit seven asteroids over the course of twelve years - one in the main belt and six in Jupiter's Trojan swarms. Lucy is named for the famous hominid fossil that shed light on our early human ancestors; by making the first exploration of the Trojan asteroids, the Lucy mission will improve our understanding of the early solar system, and be the first to uncover these fossils of planet formation. Learn more about the Lucy mission: https://www.nasa.gov/lucy Universal Production Music: Canyon of Dreams This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13352 Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Dan Gallagher If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc

Dr. Hal Levison joined the NASA Night Sky Network on July 25, 2019 to share with us the plans for the Lucy mission to study the Trojan asteroids. For more information, check out the webinar outreach resource page on the Night Sky Network website. https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/admin/download-update.cfm?Doc_ID=648

With two new missions set by NASA, we hope to learn so much more of the asteroids surrounding Jupiter's orbit and the origin of our moon! Hosted by: Caitlin Hofmeister ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters—we couldn't make SciShow without them! Shout out to Bella Nash, Kevin Bealer, Mark Terrio-Cameron, Patrick Merrithew, Charles Southerland, Fatima Iqbal, Benny, Kyle Anderson, Tim Curwick, Will and Sonja Marple, Philippe von Bergen, Bryce Daifuku, Chris Peters, Patrick D. Ashmore, Charles George, Bader AlGhamdi ---------- Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover your torso and hold your liquids? Check out our awesome products over at DFTBA Records: http://dftba.com/scishow ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: NASA Missions: https://discovery.msfc.nasa.gov/kepler.cfml https://discovery.msfc.nasa.gov/dawn.cfml http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/pdf/2061.pdf http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998A%26A...339..278M https://www-n.oca.eu/michel/PubliGroupe/MorbyNature2005.pdf https://arxiv.org/abs/0712.0553 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103507006094 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/books/AsteroidsIII/pdf/3007.pdf https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-two-missions-to-explore-the-early-solar-system http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Mission/Spacecraft/Payload.php https://sese.asu.edu/research/psyche http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2016/11/water-discovered-on-metal-asteroid http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/science/nasa-psyche-asteroid.html http://www.universetoday.com/32856/asteroid-belt/ http://www.space.com/24284-asteroid-psyche-magnetic-metal-space-rock-infographic.html http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/T/Trojan+Asteroids http://www.space.com/30302-lagrange-points.html Moon Formation: http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2866.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v520/n7548/full/nature14355.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v520/n7548/full/nature14360.html http://www.space.com/29047-how-moon-formed-earth-collision-theory.html Images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant-impact_hypothesis#/media/File:BigSplashEnglish.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(spacecraft)#/media/File:PIA21275_Psyche_Artist%27s_Concept.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(spacecraft)#/media/File:InnerSolarSystem-en.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(spacecraft)#/media/File:Lucy--mission-13--v3.png Episodes Referenced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRf-hB8X7b0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeIyO1J2rnA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TLAIokN71g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzAEeROl3rw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWJWoQF1PPw